Always look at the bright side

The last few weeks have been a real roller coaster for me. Races in France, in Tobago and now leading up to Pan-american games in Guadalajara, Mexico !

My time in France was spoiled with a knee injury appearing the 4 jours des As, an elite national stage race. While in good form, I stopped racing in order to rest my knee and recover. Unfortunately, the pain reappears during the following race, a very mountainous Tour du Pays de Gex, featuring a 15km cat 1 climb on the first stage followed by a time trial and road race on the second day. Still in good shape (only 50sec off the winner in the time trial with a regular road bike without tt bars). The next weeks have been spent trying to heal up completely, but in the end, I left France still with the problem, going into The Tobago Cycling Classic, a programmed race a long time ago before the injury.

I looked at the bright side and figured out, it could be worst. A week in the warmth of the Carribean sea could be the perfect opportunity to rest my knee and I could help the team with feeding and logistics during the races.

The trip to Tobago was quite one ! I first had to leave France from Geneva wich gave me a very short 1h night after we arrived from the last race in the west of France and after I had finished packed all my stuff and bikes. I took the plane at noon in Geneva and arrived in Montreal at 2PM where I was picked up by Team 1% at the airport en route to New York where we would be sleeping at the hotel before an early flight at 7am at JFK airport to Trinidad and Tobago. It was a good plan if we remove all the unexpected ! We stopped eating at an Italian restaurant which took a bit more time than expected, got arrested by friendly Police officer who warned us for broken lights on our bike trailer and finally arrived just in time to pay a park'n fly spot at the hotel and jump in the shuttle to the airport where we met our Directeur Sportif Leo Ventura from Innovation bike shop (New York). We could finally rest a bit during the 4,5h flight to Tobago !

We arrived in Tobago around 2PM, built the bikes and organized logistics for the upcomming race. The team was filled with good riders from Canada, USA, Sweden and Belgium ! Quickly, Leo noticed I was too low on the bike and fit me on the biki adjusting my saddle 0,8cm higher along with electro-stimulation before bed time. The following day, I started the race anyway to see if the new position helped and was very surprises. I was able to ride without pain and even made the final breakaway, finally finishing in 14th position, not pushing it in the end to save my knee.

The next day was more hilly, so I decide not to start the race as I did not want to push it too quickly. The day 3 and 4 were criteriums so I was excited to do them, not having done a single one during my whole time in France. I felt pretty good and help the team for a stage win on the first one and ride aggressively on the second one.  The last race was a grueling 112km around the mountainous island. Having done it before, I knew the course was very hard ! With no pain in the last 4 days, thanks to the new fitting and electro stimulation, I started it to help the team as much as I could. I was surprised with my form as I set the pace for the first climb and then control all attacks from the peloton with teammate Nick Daems in breakaway ! I felt very strong during the first 60km of the race, always sitting second or third wheel from the lead group to control the attacks. With the feeding being very difficult with Nick 4min ahead and the heat (35+degrees) hammering on us, I faded a bit in the second half of the race, but still rode strong to finish in the top 20, in 16th position, at 29km/h of average ! (winner being just over 30,8km/h, it tells you about the difficulty of the course !) In the end, Nick finished in second place, just loosing his advantages in the last 10km. On the other end, he won KOM and U23 trophees.

I am extremely happy with the results of the team and myself as I can now focus on the upcomming Pan-Am games without the knee issue. In Guadalajara, I will ride the team pursuit with Remi Pelletier Roy, Jacob Schwingboth, and Rob Britton. It should be an exciting experience to ride during games and look forward to give my best during the team pursuit, my favorite event of all !

Photos: Racing in Tobago - Credits @ Charles Brassard